16 OCT 06: A SONNY ISLAND DAY

Who could have imagined it? The Republican Governor of Georgia visited Jekyll Island - and given a choice of two conferences, he passed by a conservative church group and spoke to civil rights activists. Sonny Perdue must be going for the biggest election blowout in Georgia history....

I never knew Governor Sonny Perdue was coming to my vacation spot of Jekyll Island until after he had gone. He spoke Friday to a state conference of the NAACP -- a group you'd think would endorse the "education candidate," Mark Taylor. But given the misspelling of Georgia we noticed on their hotel banner, maybe that's not a big issue in this election.

I stumbled upon the NAACP banner Thursday night at a Jekyll Island hotel. A group of us went to dinner at a steakhouse there. But the other three members of the group were more interested in other things - such as getting a key to tour a high-priced room, in case they want to stay there next fall. Television sets in cabinets actually impressed this group.

But anyway: a table in the lobby at the Jekyll Island NAACP conference offered another surprise - all sorts of literature promoting the "FairTax," or national sales tax. By the way, the literature indicates the phrase has been trademarked. So "FairTax" does not allow unfair usage.

(And about that phrase -- who decided the national sales tax WAS a fair tax? Aren't there some people who claim no tax is fair at all?)

One of the handouts promoting the national sales tax quotes at length from Jimmy Carter's 1976 Presidential campaign brochure. The President from Plains apparently never endorsed that specific tax 30 years ago -- but he called for "basic tax reform." And this was on Jekyll Island, where the entry fee has tripled since 1985.

Perhaps the Brunswick News newspaper covered Governor Perdue's visit to the NAACP conference at Jekyll Island. Television stations nearby did not. No Jacksonville station mentioned him. A Savannah station talked with the governor about other topics, once he showed up in that city. And the only cable channel for the island doesn't seem to have had a computer update since 1990.

It really wasn't a surprise that Governor Sonny Perdue drove by the church convention I was attending. For one thing, our denomination claims to be apolitical and AGAINST voting. Yet somehow or other, the elders conduct "balloting" for denominational leaders every year....

Yet start talking to the membership privately about politics, and you'll find the vast majority are conservative. In fact, they might actually be TOO conservative for Sonny Perdue. Awhile back, a member in my congregation actually said Rush Limbaugh had "sold out."

But if Governor Sonny Perdue HAD asked for permission to speak to our church convention, I doubt the ministry would have let him do it. After all, we collected donations for two Brunswick shelters for two days - then let the people who run the shelters were NOT allowed on stage, to say thank you in person.

Governor Sonny Perdue headed for Jekyll Island after attending a groundbreaking ceremony for a wider interstate exit ramp in Brunswick. I don't know what route he took to the island - but Highway 520 happens to have an intersection south of Brunswick called "Zellwood Drive." You don't think he stopped the car there for a campaign picture....?!

It was at Jekyll Island that I saw Mark Taylor's first "attack ad" in the Governor's race. He and Sonny Perdue now dispute whether some land the Republican bought is worth $40 million or $2 million. But for some reason, the Governor's response ad never mentions his land is in Florida -- and whether he's moved a retirement trailer onto the lot.

So what else did we find on our cross-Georgia road trip? Here are some highlights:

+ "We wouldn't mind if we never have another sports team." So said a woman I met in Jekyll Island, who works with a Civic Center -- the Asheville Civic Center, in North Carolina. This woman apparently has no aspiration about becoming Asheville's mayor.

The woman from Asheville told me her city has lost several sports teams in recent years. But she said a good Civic Center concert can bring in more money than a sports season. I heard this before I read online about the Columbus Civic Center's tenth anniversary concert - which perhaps should have been held in a coffee shop on Broadway.

Did I read it correctly on WRBL's web site - the tenth anniversary concert for the Columbus Civic Center only sold 22 advance tickets?!? Why, this coming weekend's Jordan-Spencer football game probably could top that....

But anyway: the woman from Asheville said hockey teams are the most irresponsible of sports franchises. She claimed one hockey team in her city actually invited fans on its web site to go to games to get drunk! Well, if the players can "belt" each other with checks....

+ Brunswick has a nice downtown library, which opened within the last five years. But a passerby was amused when I took a picture of a strip of sand, between the sidewalk and building. The man didn't realize I'd already taken pictures of the expensive and high-rising new bridge at the edge of town - the one hiding the gambling boat so well.

"Why is the strip of sand there?" I asked the local man who saw me taking the picture. "Is it for smokers?" No - there wasn't a single cigarette butt there. Besides, the nightclubs were around the corner and down the street.

"Is it a reminder of the beach?" I wondered. Jekyll Island is about ten miles from the Brunswick library, with St. Simons Island even closer -- but the library was built with no green space to even plant a palm tree.

Since my two guesses were wrong, the local resident explained the correct answer. "There were rocks along the side, but children were throwing them." So sand was put in the gap, to replace gravel - and it's only fun to play with sand if you bring a tiny shovel and bucket.

+ Based on a "leading indicator" I saw during the trip, don't expect gas prices in Columbus to go any lower. The lowest price in Tifton was $1.95 a gallon as I drove east October 6 - and $2.03 Saturday night, as I drove west toward home. I'm not sure how people in Tifton heard about OPEC's production cut first.

+ Poulan, Georgia is a tiny town in Worth County - so small that when I took a side trip there to drop an item in a mailbox, the only traffic was a drag race of sorts. It was one man in a motorized wheelchair, against three dogs jogging alongside.

Yet Poulan apparently is large enough to be a stop for a touring circus. Posters were up saying the circus would come to a town park - for not one, but two performances. Would THIS event draw 22 people? And how much elixir would be sold at the edge of the tent, to pay the bills?

+ Instant Message to anyone who might be reading this in Waycross: About that sign along Corridor Z warning against "Waycross Censorship in Action" - if it really is, why didn't someone take down that sign in more than a week?

COMING TUESDAY: We'll get to some of your e-mails, which piled up during our road trip....

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